“The Jolly Roger Social Club is noir reporting at its best, a true crime tale for our age, a deftly guided tour into a shadowy netherworld where the phrase 'last call' can be taken quite literally.”

—Susan Casey,author of Voices in the Ocean, and The Wave

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In the remote Bocas del Toro, Panama, William Dathan Holbert, aka "Wild Bill," is awaiting trial for the murder of five fellow American ex-patriots. Holbert's first victims were the Brown family, who lived on a remote island in the area's Darklands. There, Holbert turned their home into the "Jolly Roger Social Club," using drink- and drug-fueled parties to get to know other ex-pats. The club's tagline was: "Over 90% of our members survive." Those odds were not in his victims' favor.

The Jolly Roger Social Club is not just a book about what Holbert did and the complex financial and real estate motives behind the killings; it is about why Bocas del Toro turned out to be his perfect hunting ground, and why the community tolerated-even accepted-him for a time. Told through the fascinating history of the country of Panama, a paradise with sinister ties to the political and economic interests of the United States, journalist Nick Foster brings this uniquely bizarre place to life; shedding light on a community where many live under assumed names, desperate to leave their old lives behind-and sometimes people just disappear.

MAIN CHARACTERS

William Dathan Holbert

“If this system goes down, I won’t starve. I’ll go to a rich person’s house and kill them all.”

AKA: Donald Lee Bruckart; Dr. Luke Gregory Kuhn; Dr. William Reese; William Adolfo Cortez; Wild Bill Cortez. An American expat accused of killing six people. Wanted in the U.S. for felony fraud, Holbert fled the country and wound up in Bocas del Toro. An imposing figure who looked much older than he was, Holbert portrayed himself as a real estate developer with cash to spend. He opened a Harley-Davidson repair shop, drove a powerboat, drank often, and ran The Jolly Roger Social Club, a bar whose ominous tagline was “Over 90% of our members survive.”

Laura Michelle Reese

“Folks aren’t going to believe what we’ve been doing here when we’re gone.”

AKA Jane Seana Cortez. Reese began an affair with the then-married Holbert when they both lived in North Carolina. When Holbert fled to South America, she joined him. Reese had a reputation for being moody and distant. She was Holbert’s quiet and constant companion.

Michael Watson Brown

AKA Michael Francis Salem, Michael Csafka, James Hall, Bob Zell, Michael Zildgen, and Captain Johan Tortugas. Brown was a father of three who lived with his second wife, Nan, and their son, Watson, in Bocas del Toro. Though they seemed like a nice family, Brown was a career criminal looking to keep a low profile. Brown’s estranged brother called him a “brutal” man. Brown owned twelve acres of land on the Darklands Peninsula, a densely forested location that one can only travel around by boat. It is the perfect place to be anonymous.

Bo Icelar

AKA Bo Yancey. A reclusive antique dealer. Icelar once lived Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he ran into trouble for dealing artifacts that violated the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Icelar later declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy and relocated to his Bocas del Toro home with a significant mount of money and a collection of valuables. Icelar owned a secluded home in Big Creek, the most expensive place to live in Bocas. He was known as an eccentric, private man that sometimes disappeared for extended periods of time.

Cher Hughes

A businesswoman from St. Louis, Missouri who had come to Bocas del Toro with her husband, Keith Werle, to enjoy the good life. They owned a home on a private island and a property of rental units. Hughes and Werle had a reputation for partying. They seemed happy until Werle left Hughes for one of their acquaintances. This drove Hughes into a deep depression. She told one friend that her 12-guage, sawed-off shotgun and her Doberman were her only friends.

Nick Foster was born in Liverpool, UK in 1966, and educated at University College London. He worked for several years as a European Union diplomat, and as a stringer working out of Caracas, Venezuela, filing news stories and research to the UK’s broadsheets. He now writes features for the Financial Times and the International New York Times, among other outlets. He is also producing a documentary film on France's highest-profile cold case. Foster is married with two young sons and lives in Belgium.